The Other Slayer
by melodrome
Summary: When Buffy's nowhere to be found four months after she sends Angel to hell, Faith's impact on Sunnydale is somewhat different. What will the heartbroken Spike be able to do with the other slayer in town? [Complete.]
1. Chapter 1

Buffy sat at her table and swished the food around on her plate. God, this was such a rut. Every day she woke up to the same bland apartment, went to the same derogatory workplace, ate the same crap for lunch, went home and wished she was in Sunnydale. Then she went to sleep crying and woke up the next day. The cycle continues.

She made enough money to get by, especially since Lily had moved in. She saved what she could and hoped that someday she had something to spend it on. But for now she waited tables for a bunch of assholes who tip extremely poorly. It didn't help her minimum-wage pay. Eight hours every day except Sundays. What a joke.

Every day she hurt. Her mother had kicked her out, she'd gotten expelled from school, and she sent her boyfriend to hell. She'd thought she had nothing. What did she have to lose? She could leave and start over.

But she'd forgotten about her friends. Xander, Willow, Giles, Oz… God, even Cordelia. She missed them all beyond description. It was getting to the point where the weirdest things reminded her of them; food reminded her of Xander. Books reminded her of Giles. Shoes reminded her of Cordelia. Most music reminded her of Oz, and red hair reminded her of Willow.

Everything else reminded her of Angel.

That's what hurt the most.

"Summers!" came a voice from behind the counter. "Get your ass back here! Your break's been over for five minutes."

"Coming," she said, throwing the contents on her plate into the garbage and grabbing a tray that had just come up.

"Hey Anne, you okay?" asked Lily as she passed. After their hellish experience in… well, hell, Buffy had convinced her boss to hire Lily. They were splitting the rent on their shoddy apartment. At least she had that. After six months, at least she had one friend.

Buffy smiled. "Yeah. Just thinking."

"You've been doing a lot of that lately. It's weird. Stop it."

Buffy chuckled as she brought burgers to a couple of truckers. She felt better. It wasn't her best decision ever, but it was right. She just hoped her friends were doing okay with the demon-fighting.

* * *

"Xander, hold him steady!"

"I'm trying, Will. He squirms."

"Well, if you held onto him tight enough, I bet he'd stop squirming…"

"Just stake him, Willow."

The redhead leapt forward with a stake and tried to catch the vampire off-guard. She plunged the wooden object through the vamp's chest and it disappeared in an explosion of dust, but not before giving Willow a decent kick. She fell backwards and ran into Oz, who was fighting another vamp.

"Oh! Sorry, Oz…"

"No worries," he said, regaining his balance and stepping aside as the vampire ran at him. The vamp's momentum kept him going until he ran into a nearby tombstone, at which point Oz put a stake through his back. The vamp stiffened and exploded.

Xander helped Cordelia out of the bush she'd been pushed into. "Gee, the vamps really are out in full force tonight."

"We've got 'em covered," Willow proclaimed proudly as she put an arm around Oz.

"Yeah, well, we wouldn't have to if Buffy would stop being so self-involved and get over whatever her problem is so we don't have to risk our lives every night to do her job for her," Cordelia commented.

Xander looked away sadly. "Giles get anywhere on that last lead?"

Willow shrugged. "Not really. He went, and it turned out to be a couple of teenagers getting all fightey about nothing in particular. Neither of them were even girls, and both were alive."

"I hate to say it, but Giles needs to give it up. He gets his hopes up every time only to be disappointed every time. There's no way we're going to find her," Xander said as the two couples made their way to the school.

"I just think it's a miracle that some demon mob hasn't ambushed Sunnydale yet," Oz said.

"Shh!" said Willow. "Don't say that! Now some demon mob will ambush Sunnydale." Oz smiled and tightened his hold around Willow's shoulders. They walked in silence…

…until a vampire getting its ass seriously kicked went sprawling across the street. A woman wearing tight leather pants and an even tighter tank top ran after it, but stopped when she saw the Scoobies.

"It's okay," said Cordelia impatiently. "We know. Just slay it already before we have to."

The woman nodded skeptically and went about beating up the vampire in a very spirited way. Eventually she plunged a stake through its heart and the wind carried its dust away. She walked toward where the others stood. "I'm Faith. Who the hell are you?"

Xander stepped forward and extended his hand. "I'm Xander." Faith stared at the hand and chewed her gum with her eyebrows raised. Xander eventually dropped it and went to put his arm around Cordelia. She only looked at him with disgust and went to stand beside Oz with crossed arms. "Here's Willow, Oz, and that was Cordelia," he continued.

"Great, but that doesn't tell me much."

"Neither does just 'Faith'," Cordelia said. "You were really beating on that vampire. Either he was really slow and weak, or they sent a replacement Slayer for Buffy."

Faith gave Cordelia the one-over. "Good call. Well, I'm a Slayer, anyway. I'm looking for Buffy. Any thoughts on where she is?"

"Oh, don't we wish," Xander said.

"Well, worth a shot," she said. "Someone mind showing me where the party is in this town?"

"Actually, yes," Willow said. "We were headed to… someplace. And we're late. So we have to go there now."

"Actually, you should come," said Oz. Willow looked up at him slightly indignantly. "We're going to see Buffy's old Watcher. He'd want to meet you."

"Okay, cool," Faith said. "Plenty of time for partying tonight."

Willow picked up Oz's wrist and looked at his watch. She saw that it was after ten o'clock. She didn't look much older than them, and it was a school night. She suppressed her shock as they started walking again.

Cordelia decided to pick up conversation with Faith. "So, Faith. Why are you looking for Buffy?"

"Thought it was a good place to start. My Watcher got killed a while back by a real old vampire, wanted her help to kill it. I heard she wasn't here anymore, so I went searching. She's real good at hiding when she wants to, hey?"

"That she is," Xander responded sadly.

"So I thought I'd start where she was last seen. Someone's bound to know her, right? And here I am, wailin' on some vamp my first day here and I meet her old friends."

"We're still her friends!" Willow protested.

"Sorry Red, but if she hasn't talked to you in six months, I don't really think you're her friends anymore."

Willow pouted. Oz frowned. The rest of the walk was taken in silence.

Xander was first through the library doors. "Hey Giles, look who we found."

Giles hurried out of his office looking excited, but his face fell when he saw it wasn't Buffy with them. Then he frowned as he realized he had no idea who the young woman was. "Hello," he said.

"You're the Watcher?" she asked, looking pleased. "Well, if I knew they came this young and handsome, I would have ordered one years ago."

Xander snickered. Cordelia looked disgusted. "This is Faith. She's Buffy's replacement," she said without thinking. Giles looked down at his feet. "I mean, she's a Slayer, too," she corrected.

"Hey," Faith said, offering her hand to Giles. Xander's jaw dropped in annoyance.

"A Slayer? Really? How curious," he said, interested. "What brings you to Sunnydale?"

"Looking for B, actually. I was hoping someone 'round here had something to say about where she is. Looks like I'm wrong."

"Yes, well, we're still looking," Giles said hopefully.

"Yeah?" Faith said. "Well, good luck. I've been all over the country and I ain't heard nothin' about her."

Giles winced at Faith's grammar but said nothing about it. "There's always hope," he said offhandedly.


	2. Chapter 2

Willow and Oz walked into the library after school the next day to see Giles rushing in and out of his office with miscellaneous things in his hands.

"What's up, Giles?" Willow asked.

"New lead," he said distractedly.

Willow looked down at her shoes. "Giles?"

"Hm?"

"Don't you think we've kinda… exercised all the leads?"

Giles finally stopped what he was doing and looked at Willow. "What are you saying?"

Willow smiled sadly. "You know what I'm saying."

Giles stood for a moment more. "No," he said, and continued bustling about.

"Giles!"

"What?" he said shortly and stared at Willow sternly.

"I'm sorry Buffy left, Giles. Really, I am. I don't understand it and I don't like it. I wish more than anything that Buffy was here. But she isn't. And we looked for her. We looked everywhere. Up and down the country… we checked in Canada and Mexico. But Buffy is not going to be found unless she wants to be. I think…" Willow looked up at the Watcher and he saw that she had tears in her eyes. "I think we should just let her be elsewhere. Let's just leave her alone."

Giles stopped what he was doing and sat down. "Willow," he said slowly, "I wish to God that was possible. But she just disappeared. We assume she sent Angel to hell, wrote a note to her mother, packed her things and left. But there is still that possibility that she went to hell with him."

"And wrote a note to her mum beforehand? Xander saw Buffy right before the battle, Giles."

"After she was expelled. After the fight with her mother. After she knew what was expected of her if the ritual was completed. It's possible."

"There's barely a chance!" Willow said loudly.

"There's enough of one!" Giles shouted back. "You may be willing to give up, but I am not."

"It's tearing you apart," Willow pleaded.

"Less than it would if I accepted defeat in this matter." Giles got up from the chair he was sitting in and resumed moving throughout the library, completely ignoring Willow's tears and Oz's attempt to quell them. They sat down and eventually Giles came out of his office with a coat and a suitcase.

"I've asked Faith to patrol, so you needn't do it. I trust you can run the show should something arise while I'm gone?" he asked Willow.

"As always," she whispered. Giles nodded and turned to go. "Giles?" Willow called after him. "Good luck."

Giles looked back and smiled kindly at the redhead and pushed past the crowds in the hallway.

* * *

Buffy tried to make it the four blocks as quickly as possible. _Slayer or not, downtown L. A. at night is no picnic,_ she thought to herself.

And once again she found herself wondering what the gang was doing. She was keeping an eye on the Sunnydale obituaries to make sure none of them were getting killed. What she'd do if they were she didn't know, but she didn't want to think it through.

As much as she hated to admit it to herself, all people aside, she missed Slaying. There were times over the summer that she wanted to just get out of bed and hunt down a vampire. It'd be a challenge, what with no hellmouth around or anything.

But then she thought better of it. She left Sunnydale to escape everything. She was done with Slaying. If it led her to another Angel-like situation, then she'd stay minimum safe distance away from it.

That time in Hell with Lily had almost brought her back into it. Beating up that Ken guy made her feel better. But she realized after a minute that she was totally kidding herself if she thought she was ever going to go back to Sunnydale.

Buffy walked into the diner, automatonically checking in and picking up an order without interrupting her thought process. I mean, she could slay vampires. She could probably find them and it would make the world a better place.

But that might lead to sightings, which might indicate her location to Giles. With the Ken thing, it was a closed deal; the battle took place in hell and the people who got out had the sense not to say anything. But if she went out and slew vamps in public, it could lead to Giles finding her. If he was even still looking.

_Why don't you want him to find you?_ she asked herself. _You want to go home, you just don't have a reason to_.

_I have a perfectly legitimate reason!_ argued Buffy's other piece of mind. Sunnydale is an unhappy place to be.

_You're not happy here._

_Shut up. I get your point. I just… can't go home. There! I can't go there. It wouldn't be right_.

Buffy shook her head to stop the mental arguing. It was starting to addle with her mind. All this thinking about Sunnydale and the life she had made her think she saw Giles standing at the door to the diner.

And there he was again. With… a suitcase. And a disbelieving expression on his face.

"Hello, Buffy."

* * *

"So this is party central," Faith said, unimpressed, as she, Xander and Cordelia entered the Bronze. "Kinda lame."

"Aw, you'll get used to it," Xander promised. "It's Wednesday. Kind of a slow night anyway."

"Well, may as well make the best of it." She walked up to some miscellaneous guy wearing leather and dragged him onto the dance floor. Xander watched in fascination as Faith danced before Cordelia dragged him off to get her a drink.

"What is it with you and Slayers?" she asked in annoyance.

"Do you need to ask?"

"No, not really. Well, yes. Tell me."

"Cordy…"

"Don't you Cordy me, Xander Harris. I'm no less attractive than Faith. I'm certainly more attractive than Buffy will ever hope to be. What is it about…"

"Energy."

"…What?"

"I've chalked it up to energy. Faith and Buffy both exuded this amazing power and energy that no one else has because no one else is a Slayer. Kendra had it, too, but she was different."

"That's stupid. You're stupid." Cordelia hit Xander on the shoulder and went off to two of the few people who still speak to her since they found out about she and Xander. He rubbed his shoulder and watched after her in disbelief, jumping when Faith came up behind him.

"What's her problem?" she asked, following Xander's line of vision.

"I told her the truth."

"Oh. Then I guess you are pretty stupid."

"Ha, ha. Drole." Xander paused. "So, you seem to be having an okay time after all."

"Yeah. Not half-bad. That Spike guy's a pretty radical dancer, even if he is completely tanked. I'm kinda thinking he's a radical dancer because he's tanked, actually."

The fear and shock drowned out the noise in the Bronze as Xander's eyes widened. "Spike?" he whispered.

"Uh, yeah… he went to get some coffee or something. I told him his drunkeness was throwing off my vibe. I'm getting something kinda weird off him."

"That's because he's a vampire!" Xander yelled. Several people around him whipped their heads around to look at him like he was insane. "…said the guy in the movie. And then everyone ran away except for this one poor kid who got his jugular torn out by that vampire I just mentioned just now."

"Nice save," Faith said.

"Yeah. Thanks. Let's go put a nice, extra-pointy stake through that bastard's chest, okay?"

"Hold your horses, Xand," Faith said. "I'm not done with him yet."

"What? What do you mean, 'not done with him yet'? Oh, you mean not done with him yet in the sense that he won't fit in an ashtray yet! Okay, let's go be done with him, then."

Faith laughed and grabbed Xander's arm to pull him back. "I think you know what I mean, Xand."

"Or possibly I'm just choosing not to believe it."

"Well, that works out. You can believe what you want, and I'll go get what I want. Everybody's happy." She shoved her drink into Xander's hand and rejoined the platinum blonde bloodsucker on the dance floor. He watched them for a second in disbelief and regret that he hadn't recognized him sooner.

Cordelia was beside him. "That's Spike."

"Yes, it is," Xander said dimly.

"Now why didn't you just tell me that that was why you were watching Faith dance?"

"Because I didn't notice it was him at the time. WHOA, I mean, because I didn't want to lie to you. I want our relationship to be very open and… and loving. There could be open loving."

"Nice save," she said sarcastically, sounding very similar to the way Faith had minutes earlier.

"Yeah. I'm on a roll with saves tonight. Let's go find Giles."

"Giles is on another pointless mission, remember?"

Xander looked over at his girlfriend. "You're not an optimist, are you?"

"I'm too smart to delusion myself."

Xander suppressed a snort of laughter. "Oh-ho, kay. Let's find Willow, then."

"Well, shouldn't we keep an eye… on…" Cordelia's face crumpled in disgust as Faith and Spike started a round of full-contact tonsil hockey.

"Actually, I'm hoping to get my eyes removed at this point," Xander said, throwing off shivers and guiding Cordelia out of the Bronze.  



	3. Chapter 3

Buffy had lost track of time. She could only stare at Giles and wait for him to disappear in a puff of smoke or a shimmer of glitter or something.

"…Buffy?"

"It's Anne now," was all she could bring herself to say. Then she turned around and delivered the food to customers sitting behind her, resuming her mindless routine.

"B… Anne. Can we… er… talk?" Giles asked as he followed her around the restaurant.

"I don't really think talking is either of our strong points right now," she said offhandedly, delivering a muffin to a homeless-looking person.

"I want you to come back. We're losing without you. Last week, Snyder gave the whole town chocolate bars that made all the adults turn into teenagers. It was chaos."

Buffy went back and grabbed more trays. "Last year, I got expelled, kicked out of the house, accused of murder, and I then sent the man I love to hell. It was torture."

Giles brushed off her rant. "I've discussed it with your mother. She wants you home, too. You're not wanted for murder anymore, and I'm sure we can renegotiate the terms of your readmission into school."

Buffy finally stopped and whirled around. "Giles, you just don't get it, do you?_ I can't go back_. Even if everything you just said is true, it…"

"What? It isn't worth it because… because _Angel_ isn't around? You never should have left. We're barely scraping by with the basic slaying and if anything big comes, we will all die."

"_Even if everything you said is true, there is no way I'll get anyone's forgiveness_!" Buffy shouted over Giles' voice. "Don't you think I've considered coming home? Do you think that a single minute ever passes without me questioning my decision to stay here? I can't come back because even if people think they want me back, they don't really. Things would be too awkward. You've all moved on with your lives."

"I think my presence here proves quite emphatically otherwise," Giles said quietly but with extraordinary anger Buffy hadn't seen since Ethan Rayne had appeared in Sunnydale.

"Your presence here proves nothing but your inability to let things go," Buffy said, unable to hold back the tears that rolled down her cheeks. She bowed her head at a loss of anything else to say and, despite herself, allowed herself to dissolve in Giles' arms.

"SUMMERS!" Yelled Buffy's boss as he came around the counter brandishing a spatula at her. "What in the blazes do you think you're doing? Slacking at your job, disrupting the customers… tell your father to leave or you can kiss this job goodbye."

Buffy looked up with puffy eyes, stepped away from Giles, and punched her boss in the face. He fell to the ground and Buffy tore her apron off and threw it on top of his unconscious form. Then she looked up at the door of the diner. "I think someone stole your suitcase," she said quietly and in a stuffy voice. She turned around to see tears forming in Giles' eyes as well.

"Damn," he whispered, obviously not really caring.

Buffy laughed. "I'll go home and change. Then we can go someplace and talk."

Giles nodded and put a hand on Buffy's shoulder. Together, he and Buffy walked out of the dingy diner for the last time.

* * *

"Spike."

"And Faith."

"In the Bronze."

"_So much gross..._"

"Whoa, whoa," Willow said, leaning against the doorframe and staring at Xander and Cordelia in disbelief. "Slow down, guys. What I got from that is that Faith and Spike are in the Bronze doing something gross. Somehow, I doubt that's right."

"Your doubt is doubtful, doubty," Xander said, still jittery from seeing Spike back in town.

"What? Oh. Well, that's bad. What is he even doing back? Does Faith know he's a vampire?"

"Oh, she knows. I told her, and she said some completely insane thing about, 'you believe what you want and I'll go get what I want'. She's psychotic!"

"We didn't actually talk to Spike," Cordelia added. "We watched them exchange tongues and then we left because ew. Also, I second that psychotic vote."

"You seem pretty not caring about this whole situation, Will. What's up?"

Willow smiled. "We should find Faith and make her stop ewing with Spike."

"I second that," Xander proclaimed. "Say, Will, got any sharp, sharp stakes in there?"

"A couple. I'll just go and get them."

"And we'll wait here," Xander said back, slightly suspicious of Willow's behavior. He turned to Cordelia. "Okay. I know she doesn't like Faith very much, but she could care a little more about Spike being back. I mean, if he eats Faith, we have no Slayer, and Buffy could barely fight him."

"Maybe she realizes it's hopeless."

Xander stared at Cordy as Willow walked out of the door, sporting a light backpack with weapons. "We ready?" she asked them.

"And setty," Xander said, and the trio set off in the general direction of the Bronze.

* * *

"You can."

"No, I can't."

"Yes, you can."

"Giles."

"Buffy, this isn't a discussion. You are both welcome and able to come back to Sunnydale. We need you there, and you're very obviously not happy here."

"Do you really need me? Sounds like this Faith has it all under control."

"Oh, I very much doubt that. She seemed to care about very little other than where you are and where the party is. As we speak, there is little doubt in my mind that she's off doing something rather… unorthodox."

* * *

"I don't see them."

"Me neither."

"Okay," Xander said, starting to feel nervous again. "They must be around here somewhere. We weren't gone that long, and neither of them looked like they were going to get bored anytime soon."

"Uh, guys…"

"We last saw them over there," Xander continued, retracing his steps, "leaning against that wall. Eurgh." He shuddered with the memory. "They really can't have gone far."

"Guys…"

"Well, let's ask around," Cordelia suggested. "The bartender's probably seen them. Who would miss a couple like that?"

"Hey!" Willow said loudly, finally getting their attention. "They just left out the back door, still… all over each other."

"Really?"

"No, she's joking just to see the face you make," Cordelia said sarcastically and headed toward the door to the club.

* * *

"Come home, Buffy."

"Why? What's there for me anymore? I can't go to school…"

"…which you're not doing here either. Your mother misses you. Your friends miss you. I miss you. And with the police off your case, there's no reason for which Snyder cannot reaccept you into school."

"Really? Shall we make a small wager on that fact?"

"If you don't come home, I'm going to tell everyone where you are anyway, so your life is going to get a touch more hectic. You can't hide from us anymore. You don't have your absurd job anymore…"

"I can't leave Lily."

"You can."

"Giles."

"You want to come home. If this were not so, you would have had me leave a few hours ago. You can't live here and wallow in your self-pity for the rest of your life. You haven't even slain anything. What use are you to anyone here?"

"I help Lily. She was homeless and jobless and she was on the quick way to hell before I got here. Literally."

"So many lives have been pointlessly lost while you've been gone. Including your own."

"No."

* * *

"Hello, Spike."

Spike smirked. "Oh look. It's the whole crew."

"More like the death crew," Xander said before realizing how incredibly unthreatening he sounded.

"Hey, back off," said Faith, stepping toward Xander. He lunged toward her and she threw him against a wall. Cordelia squeaked as she watched Xander's form slump to the ground, but kept her ground.

"Whoa," Spike said, swaying a little. "You're strong. But you're not a vampire."

"Who, Faith? Didn't she tell you?" Willow feigned confidence, hoping it was working. "She's a Slayer. Killer of your kind. I'm sure you remember the sort from your various encounters with Buffy."

"Whoa, whoa. You're a Slayer?" he asked Faith. "What the bleeding hell are you doing with me?"

Faith shrugged. "Biting me didn't seem to be number one on your list of things to do to me."

Spike smiled mischievously. "Got that right, love." Then he leaned up against a wall and held a hand to his head. "Oh balls, I think I'm sobering up."

"What's the difference to you, Spike?" Xander asked, coming to. Cordelia rushed over and helped him up since there didn't seem to be any indication of a battle.

"It's all that bitch's fault. If she hadn't gone and left me for some slime demon…"

Xander laughed hollowly and massaged his head. "Aw. Did Drusilla dump poor old Spike?"

Spike looked up. "Yeah, and she was right unreasonable about it, too. Kept saying things like…" the vampire paused. "Hey! That's none of your… I ought to bite you right now."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Hey! None of that," Willow intervened, looking at the indifferent Faith coldly. "Now, Spike, why don't you just… leave. Town. I don't really think I want to see you in these parts again," she said still trying to maintain her façade of confidence.

The vampire laughed. "Oh, yeah? And what are you going to do about it, Red? Float pencils at me to death?"

"Wh-who says I won't? Pencils are wooden, you know."

"Yeah. Right. Let's go, love," he said to Faith, kissing her deeply before they went on their way to wherever they were going.

"Well, that went well," Cordelia said. "At least we tried to dust him. Oh, wait, no we didn't."

Xander grunted. "I don't really care right now. Looks like Faith's right about one thing; his main objective doesn't seem to be to maim the population."

"Yet," Cordelia added as she and Willow helped Xander limp home.

* * *

"Fine, Buffy. I'm not going to argue with you anymore. But I can tell that you're not happy here. There's no potential for you in Los Angeles. That's all I'm going to say. But when I leave here tomorrow morning, you should know that I have an extra ticket. There's absolutely nothing stopping you from using it." Giles pushed his ticket across the table toward Buffy.

The Slayer let the tears fall onto her cheeks. "I just can't, Giles."

"Well, you have the ticket. It's up to you." Giles stood from the table and left coins on the table for the bill. Buffy stood too, wiping the tears from her eyes. "It's been wonderful to see you, Buffy. I'm glad you're well, in any case."

Buffy stepped forward and gave Giles a hug. "I'm sorry," she whispered against his jacket.

"Me too," he responded, smiling as he put an encouraging hand on Buffy's shoulder and left the establishment. Buffy watched him leave and wondered how long it would take him to notice that the spare ticket home was back in his pocket.  



	4. Chapter 4

Xander noticed Giles' Citroen in the parking lot as he and Cordelia were walking to the library after school the next day. "Hey, the G-man's back," he said offhandedly. "Think he turned anything up?"

Cordelia scoffed. "Yeah, right. After all this time of searching, Giles mysteriously found Buffy working in a shoddy old diner in downtown L. A. I'm sorry, but he needs to give it up. She is never going to be found." Willow and Oz met up with them at the doors as Xander pushed them open, glaring mildly at Cordelia.

"Giles?" Willow called.

"Oh, hello," he returned from the depths of his office. "I'm glad you lot are here. There… erm… seems to be a… oh my."

"Oh, we're all over that," Xander said, massaging his forehead unconsciously with the memory of the night before. He and the other three crowded around the office to welcome the Watcher home. "Faith's gone totally banan…as." He stopped short causing everyone behind him to run into him.

Giles sat in his office, nursing a cup of tea as usual, but what Xander mistook for extraordinary disgust seemed to be elation instead because of who was sitting in the chair opposite.

"Hi guys," Buffy said sheepishly. "How've you been?" 

* * *

"So… Spike's in town," Buffy said, still trying to understand the course of events.

"Yep," replied Xander.

"And there's a new Slayer in town."

"Yep."

"And they're…"

"Snuggly-wuggly," provided Willow.

Buffy made a face. "Yuck."

Xander nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much my reaction, too. So, tell me again why you're back."

Buffy looked at her feet. "We have bigger issues right now."

Willow looked at her best friend. "No, Buffy. We don't."

The Slayer sighed and resigned herself to telling the story. "Giles found me. There was a big thing… long story short, I told him I wasn't coming. I really wasn't, either, until Lily came home that night with some idea of opening a teen shelter. She really wanted to do it. I talked to her about it and offered my help, but she noticed that I wasn't exactly heartfelt about it. I'd lost my job, so she told me to get back here. I gave her my savings and followed her orders. She took my name."

"Oh-kaaaay," Cordy said skeptically. "Now tell us the real version."

"Cordelia," Giles said quietly. "Remember that chat we had about tact a spell ago?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes and slumped back in her chair without saying anything further. The room was silent for a moment.

"Hey," Oz spoke up, "if you're expelled from school, isn't it illegal to be on school property?"

Buffy shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Well, yes," Giles said, cleaning his glasses, "but the chances of Snyder coming in here seem slim these days. He hasn't been in here since…"

Giles was interrupted by the abrupt swinging of the library doors. Everyone sitting at the table except Buffy recoiled unconsciously as a woman Buffy didn't recognize stopped in her tracks at the sight of the Slayer.

"You must be Buffy," she said in a gravelly voice.

Studying her friends' reactions, Buffy responded with, "I'm going to take a leap of… well, Faith, and assume that you're the other Slayer."

Faith smiled sarcastically. "You're hard to find."

"Only to people like you."

Faith gasped. "That hurt, B," she said without sincerity.

"Yeah, well. I don't play nice with the dark side." Buffy stood and came face to face with the dark-haired Slayer. "I hear you hold different morals, though."

"Hey, B, step off. I don't know what you're talking about."

Buffy smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Oh, really? Well, my bad. See, here I thought you were fooling around with a soulless, heartless vampire. But I guess I was wrong."

Faith stepped back and leaned against the wall. "Hey, what—or who—a girl does is her own business. I hear your track record with vamps ain't exactly stake and sweep, either."

"So where is he now, Faith?" Buffy asked, not listening to the other Slayer's words. "Holed up for the day in your little hotel room? Hiding in the mansion at Restfield cemetery?"

"Right behind you?" said a voice from the stacks. Buffy, Giles, and everyone else sitting at the table wheeled around to face William the Bloody, smiling with a look of satisfaction and bloodlust. "Hello, love," he said to Faith before he leapt over the banister and morphed into vamp face. "All set?"

"Hell yeah," she said, stepping away from the door to show that it had been blockaded. "Let's do this."

* * *

"Faith, maybe you want to reconsider."

"And why's that, B?"

"Because… this is wrong. It's not what you want."

Faith laughed. "God. I met you two minutes ago and already I can tell I'll laugh when Spike sucks you dry."

"So he hasn't turned you?" Buffy replied as she circled the other Slayer.

"No. I wouldn't let him. I'm still in perfect control of who I am, B. I've been on the losing side too often, but this time I chose the winning side." Faith nodded to the others behind Buffy, who the blonde Slayer could tell were preparing for battle.

"If you think Spike's a winner, Faith, then you are deeply disturbed. Just look at him."

The blonde vampire looked up from his approach on the rest of the team. "What are you saying, love?" he asked Buffy, still in vampmode. "I'm a dish."

"Sure, you are," Buffy said over her shoulder. She probably would have said more if Giles hadn't hit Spike over the head with the blunt end of a crossbow. Buffy took the opportunity to duck as Faith launched herself at Buffy, letting Faith's momentum carry her to where Spike was trying to get up from the floor. She knocked him down again and Buffy motioned to the others to get out of the library as she unblocked the door. All five of them flew out of the building and ran down the hall.

"We could have taken them," Xander said under his breath.

"Xander, I would have been preoccupied with Faith, which would have left you guys to deal with Spike. I spent all of last year trying to make him fit in a dustbuster, and I failed. I don't think you could have done it."

"Oh, sorry, Buffy, but since you took off, we've had to bring up our demon fighting skills. Maybe you should have seen us try before you made the decision that we weren't competent enough."

"Xander, we so don't have time. I wasn't willing to risk it, okay? Now shut up and let's scram before those two disentangle themselves from one another. Faith's obviously gone off the deep end, and we need to regroup."

"Sorry, Buff, but I don't think you get to be boss anymore."

"Xander," Willow puffed from behind him, "You know I love you, but shut up. Buffy's right. There's something not so good going on here. If Buffy weren't here, Giles would recommend the same thing. Wouldn't you, Giles?"

"Hm? Oh, yes, definitely," said the Watcher, totally breathlessly as he stopped running and put his hands on his knees. "I think we've gone far enough."

The rest of the gang stopped. They sat on some nearby benches in the park.

"Cordy?" Oz asked a moment later. Buffy looked around. Cordelia wasn't there.

"Oh, God," Xander said.

They heard a scream.

* * *

"Okay, could you shut up about Drusilla for five minutes?"

"You don't understand."

"I don't care about that stupid bitch."

Spike growled and pinned Faith against a wall threateningly. "What did you call her?"

Faith shifted seductively beneath him. "You heard me. And I don't think you're going to do much about it." She brought her arms up and pushed Spike away before jumping on top of him and pinning him to the ground. "I'd be more worried about what I'm going to do to you." She immobilized his arms and shoved her tongue down his throat, cutting off his words. She felt him shift beneath her as he tried to get free, but he answered back to her demands forcefully.

Finally she backed off and he was able to get two words edgewise in. "I'm all for this, love, but must we do it in front of the hostage?"

Faith turned her head slightly and eyed the gagged and bound Cordelia. Her eyes were pleading but also held a fair amount of fierceness and disgust. Faith laughed and rolled off Spike. "Whatever you say, William. We'll have our fun with her first."


	5. Chapter 5

"Okay. Okay. Let's rationalize this," Buffy said, pacing. Xander, Willow, Oz, and Giles watched her walk back and forth along the bench.

"What's to rationalize, Buff?" Xander asked, slightly testily. "Cordy's been captured. Now we have to find her and save her. Simple concepts, really, when you think about them."

"No, I… we… she…"

"Those are some lovely pronouns. Really. But I vote that we go find Spike and Faith and get Cordelia out of their vicinity as soon as possible. One's a vampire, and the other's a Vampire Slayer gone coo-coo. So let's dust the vamp and arrest the tramp." Xander stood up as though telling Buffy that the matter was not up for discussion.

"And you think handcuffs are going to hold Faith?" asked Willow, uncharacteristically skeptic.

"What, didn't you notice the lacerations on her wrists? It looks like Spike's already proven that handcuffs are quite restriction enough for Faith," Xander stated.

"All right, let's move quickly away from this alarming subject and get back to how to save Cordelia, shall we?" Giles interjected, cleaning his glasses.

"I'm with Xander," Oz said, taking hold of Willow's hand. "The best course of action is the search and rescue thing. There's nothing else we really can do."

Buffy sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "All right. Let's split up. Oz, you and Will cover the park, what's left of the factory, the old mansion, any empty warehouses or abandoned buildings. Xander and Giles, take the graveyards, look in crypts or mausoleums. If you find Cordy, priority is to get her out. Make sure you're equipped with stakes and the like. If you find her and you make it out, go to my house. The library isn't safe anymore. And don't try to fight Faith. You're probably much better fighters now, but the only person who can beat a Slayer is a Slayer."

"What are you going to do?" Willow asked.

Buffy looked around at her friends and, for the first time, really appreciated how much she'd missed them. "I'm going to go home and talk with my mother."

* * *

"Okay, not really complaining here, but remind me again why we're torturing the broad?"

"'Cuz it's fun. Need any other reason?"

"Well, generally, yeah. I never torture people just for the fun of it. That was Angelus' forte."

"That was Buffy's old boyfriend, right? The vampire that she sent to hell to save the world?"

"Oh, is that what happened to him? I skipped town with Dr… I skipped town before it happened. Rather fitting fate for the bloke, if you ask me."

"Really didn't."

"Shut your mouth."

"Okay." Faith grabbed hold of Spike's head and kissed him powerfully, moaning slightly when he pinned her to the concrete floor and held her hands above her head while returning the gesture with more intensity. When he finally pulled away, she studied him carefully. "The handcuffs are in use. Whatever can we do about that?"

Spike made sure the Slayer couldn't move and then weighed his options. On the one hand, he was so very hungry, and Slayers always made a fantastic meal. Lovely aphrodisiac. On the other hand, Slayers also seemed to make fantastic lovers; they wanted the pain, but felt every bit of it, what with being alive and all. Doing a vampire just wasn't the same. And here was this Slayer, totally willing to let him do whatever he wanted.

Was there any reason he couldn't do both?

Spike pulled Faith up by the arms and slammed her against the wall. He kissed her again and then glanced over at the terrified-looking Cordelia, still conscious but certainly in no state to escape. "We've had our fun with her," Spike said, tearing off Faith's shirt before pushing her onto the bed and approaching Cordelia, taking the handcuffs off and tying her to the rusty pipe with rope. He threw the cuffs to Faith and tore off his own shirt. "And you did promise."

* * *

Joyce heard a knock at the door, and Xander's voice as he called for Buffy. "She's not here, Xander," Joyce answered from the kitchen.

"Oh," came Giles' voice, who was still keeping his distance since Joyce blamed Giles for Buffy's leaving. "But she was here, yes? She came to see you?"

"Yes, she did," she responded, wiping the tears from her eyes as the footsteps approached. "We talked. She explained everything; how you came to see her, how you gave her your ticket in case she wanted to come home, how she gave it back to you and then second-guessed her decision and came home. I know everything."

"Well, that's more than we know," a pale Xander said, trying to maintain his cheery demeanor but obviously struggling. "Did she tell you about…"

"Yes," Joyce said. "Did you find Cordelia?"

Giles looked at the floor and Xander sank down onto a seat next to Joyce. "No. No, we really didn't. I… I wanted to come back here to see if Oz and Will had any luck. Have you seen them recently?"

"No, I'm afraid I haven't, Xander. You look terrible. Can I get either of you anything?"

"No, that's fine, thank you," Giles answered politely.

"Normally, I'd love something, but I have to keep looking." Xander stood and took a deep breath. "Did Buffy say where she was going? It'd be nice to have her on the hunt."

"Sorry, Xander. We chatted, and then she… well, she just went up to her room, grabbed something, and asked if it was all right if she went looking for you guys. I didn't know where you'd be."

Xander nodded. "All right. Thanks. Are you coming with, Giles?"

"Actually, Rupert," Joyce said, talking to the counter more than Giles, "I'd like to speak with you for a while, if you don't mind."

Giles nodded at Joyce and looked up at Xander. "Is that…"

"Yeah, sure, it's fine. Just, uh… I'll just check in every so often. If Buffy comes back, tell her that I've gone in case I don't come back." Xander left the building and decided to trace Willow and Oz's steps to see if they needed help.

* * *

Buffy stood and stared at the place where it had all happened. Acathla was gone. Maybe Giles carted him away or something. But she could still see everything happen; from the sword fight from here to the garden to back again to the moment when Angelus was Angel again. The moment he went from the demon she hated to the man she loved. She'd kissed him, and then she'd put a sword through his chest. She watched him get sucked into hell.

She saw the look of shock on his face as he registered that Buffy, of all people, stabbed him.

Buffy let the tears fall off her face as she fiddled with the ring in her hands. He'd given it to her the night he'd gone homicidal again. It had been her birthday. And it had been one of the best days of her life.

But she was ready to let go.

Buffy set the ring down, and then stood there and cried for a moment. Then she turned and walked away.

Willow and Oz approached the building just as it began to happen. 


	6. Chapter 6

"Damn, you're good," Faith said, catching her breath.

"Oh, I'm not finished yet, love," Spike responded, flicking her hair back seductively.

"I didn't expect you were," Faith responded, pulling Spike toward her and kissing him deeply. Spike responded forcefully, but moved down and started to kiss her shoulder, working his way up until his lips tickled against her neck.

"I knew the only thing better than killing a Slayer would be doing one," Spike whispered as he morphed into vamp face. He held her hands down again and ensured she couldn't move beneath him. "While killing one."

Spike felt the small wave of apprehension pass through Faith. He leaned forward and just brushed her neck with his teeth, letting the blood flow slowly.

And then the ground began to shake.

* * *

"Willow, stay behind me," Oz said as his werewolfishness sensed the fear and blood. He realized that it may have just been residual from months ago when Buffy and Angel battled it out, but the fear smelled especially fresh.

Fresh to the point where it may not have even happened yet.

Oz felt the ground start to tremble and looked over at Willow, who seemed concerned but didn't seem to notice the shaking beneath her feet. "An earthquake will happen in a couple minutes. Let's take cover in the mansion, but be careful; I'm getting something strange from it."

Willow took hold of Oz's hand and followed him up the slope. She stood in the doorway and waited as Oz inhaled deeply.

Something here was new. Someone whose smell he recognized had been here only seconds before. There were also emotions he couldn't recognize, which usually chalked up to vampire or demon.

"Do you see that, Will?" he asked the redhead as he pointed to the exact spot where Acathla used to be. "There's something shining there. It wasn't there a couple of weeks ago."

Willow craned her neck and shook her head. "I don't…" she frowned as all light given by the moon faded around them. Suddenly it all seemed to be channeled on the spot where Oz was pointing. Willow hung onto Oz's arm, though she couldn't see him through the pitch darkness, and watched in horrified fascination as the ground shook beneath her feet. A yell ripped through the air as a man appeared out of thin air and lay trembling on the ground. Willow stifled her own cry but loosened up on Oz's arm as the earthquake tapered and the light returned to normal.

"Oh, my God," Willow whispered, and went to hurry over to the huddled figure on the floor. Oz grabbed her wrist and held her back.

"Willow, don't."

"Oz, we have to help him."

"I'm sensing some freaky stuff from him. Let's find Buffy. She'll want to know first."

"But… shouldn't we at least put a blanket over him or something?"

"He isn't sane. He doesn't know where he is and he likely won't know who we are. He may kill you, Willow. He just spent six months in hell. Also, we don't know if you restored his soul in time or not. Now, he knows we're here. The atmosphere in the room just changed. He just doesn't have the strength to come near us yet, which could be a very good thing. Let's just go and get Buffy."

Reluctantly, glancing at Angel one more time, she let Oz drag her away from the mansion.

* * *

"Buffy!" Xander called as he spotted the Slayer walking down the street toward him with her head down. She looked up and seemed to wipe tears away from her eyes. "Look, Buff," he said as they approached each other. "We obviously have some issues to work out, but if you're upset, you know you can still tell me anything, right?"

Buffy half-smiled at Xander. "It's… I'm fine. It's just weird being back. Any luck?"

Xander shook his head sadly. "None. Looked all over graveyards. She's not anywhere." Xander cleared his throat and looked away. "I was just… just retracing Willow and Oz's steps to see if maybe they missed something."

Buffy brought herself back to reality and pretended that she just heard what Xander said. "Oh. Okay." Then she looked around. "You're alone. Where's Giles?"

"We stopped by your house and your mom asked to speak with him. I think she wants his account of what happened in L. A., which I wouldn't mind hearing at some point either, by the way."

Buffy looked up at Xander and suddenly he found himself being hugged tightly but not overwhelmingly by a Vampire Slayer. "I'm sorry, Xander," she said a second later as more tears spilled down her face. "I've missed you."

Xander smiled sadly and caught one of her tears on his finger. "It's great to have you back, Buff."

Buffy smiled at Xander. "Well, I'm going to save Giles from my mother and wait around for word from Willow and Oz. I want you to check in every hour on the hour so I know you haven't been eaten by the evil Spike or something, okay? Otherwise I'm coming to save you."

Xander nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Buffy." He put a hand on her shoulder as he passed and headed in the direction from which Buffy came.

The Slayer watched him go, and then turned and walked toward her house. For the second time in five minutes, she was startled out of her thoughts when Willow called her while running down a side-street with Oz. "Buffy!"

"Hey, guys. What's up? Did you find her?"

"Not a her so much as a him," Willow said, catching her breath.

"You found Spike?"

"No, Buffy," Willow said seriously, standing up straight. "We found Angel."

Buffy blinked. "What?"

"Actually, he found us. During the earthquake, Angel appeared out of thin air," Oz interjected.

Buffy's expression turned from disbelief to confusion. "What earthquake?"

Willow frowned. "The earthquake that happened about five minutes ago. You know, the one that shook the ground and all that."

"Will, I didn't feel any earthquake."

"If I was Giles, I think I'd be saying 'aha' right about now," Oz muttered.

"Why?" asked Willow. Buffy was still looking at the pair of them skeptically as though they were absolutely bonkers.

"The quake was exclusive to the mansion. I wondered why I could feel it coming better when we were standing in the establishment."

"You were in the mansion?" Buffy asked, dazed.

"Yeah. Oz noticed something shiny on the ground. Then there was an earthquake, the light went all funny where the shiny thing was, and then there was Angel lying naked on the ground. I wanted to go and help him, Buffy, but Oz decided that it probably wasn't such a good idea. …Buffy?"

The Slayer was staring wide-eyed into space. She looked terrified, Willow decided. She watched Buffy in interest as Oz waved a hand in front of her face to no prevail. "Buffy!" Willow said, scared, and grabbed Buffy's arm.

The Slayer jolted and blinked repeatedly. "What? Huh?"

"Thank God! I thought you'd totally zoned out."

"Oh." Buffy shook her head violently. "Oh, sorry. I have to go there now."

"We'll come with you," Willow offered.

"No! Uh, I mean, no. Go… go to my house, grab Giles, and then find Xander. Keep looking for Cordelia. I'll go deal with An…" Buffy stumbled over the sentence. She swallowed and tried again. "I'll go deal with Angel." The Slayer turned and headed toward Restfield Cemetery.

"Buffy, wait!" Willow yelled after her. Buffy turned around violently and stared angrily at Willow for interrupting her intensive walking process. Willow jogged up to Buffy. "Buffy… I know this is hard to think about, but did the spell work? Does Angel have a soul?"

Buffy looked down at her feet. "Yeah, Will. It worked. But after all these months in hell, I don't know if he'd still have a soul. They may have driven all the good right out of him." Without looking back at Willow, Buffy turned and ran. Willow watched her go until Oz gently pulled Willow away and they walked in the direction of Buffy's house.

* * *

"What in the bleeding hell was that?" Spike asked, dressing quickly and stepping out the door. "That wasn't your standard earthquake."

"Relax, William. It was probably nothing."

"I decide what's something and what's nothing. And don't call me that."

"Yeah, whatever. Feel like letting me out of these cuffs anytime soon? I don't really want to break them… they've been coming in handy lately."

"Oh, for Chrissakes, Slayer," Spike said, striding over indignantly and unlocking Faith from the bed. "You're a lot more bother than I anticipated."

"Yeah, and what about this wound to my jugular? It's going to take days for that puppy to heal."

"Shut up and get dressed. It's not safe to be here anymore. Besides, it's best if we keep moving… throw the Slayer and her friends off our tail. They're probably out looking for that," Spike finished, jolting his head toward Cordelia, who looked particularly alarmed about the earthquake.

* * *

Xander crept into the mansion and looked around. He hadn't been here since he helped Giles wheel Acathla away, and it looked same as ever; dank, dark, and generally cold.

He'd never really explored the place; any house of Angel's was a house to stay away from. He knew there were at least three large rooms on the main floor, but it was entirely possible that there was a basement of some kind. The building was certainly large enough to house one. And if Angel, Spike and Drusilla had recently lived here, there must be some form of alternate accommodation somewhere.

Xander reached into his jacket and pulled out a stake, being ready just in case Spike decided to come flying out from nowhere. He crept silently about what he supposed would pass as a living room… _or an undead room_, Xander mentally corrected. Feeling absurdly like a secret agent of sorts, he leaned against a wall and peered through the doorway into the adjacent room.

The room was a total mess. Clothes were scattered everywhere, the bed and dresser were taken apart, the curtains ripped away from the window. Someone had obviously been here, and they didn't seem terribly happy.

Xander stepped further into the room to check for clues to see who it had been. He was promptly tackled by a cold figure that had been huddling in the corner.

He yelped and huddled in a ball to avoid getting eaten by whatever creature it was, but he found himself only to be sniffed. The creature stopped sniffing Xander and sniffed the air instead, obviously finding something he liked better than Xander. The figure left Xander and crouched low, moving quickly toward the door of the mansion.

Xander sat up in just enough time to see that it was Angel and, despite his immediate disbelief, decided to follow the seemingly feral vampire imposter… though he kept his distance.

Xander watched in fascination as Angel stopped right outside the door to sniff the air again. He could hear a growl in the back of Angel's throat and assumed that the vampire was on the hunt for food. Angel ran around to the other side of the mansion and continued to follow his nose, occasionally clawing at the ground and then moving over a few feet.

The growl intensified. Xander assumed that it was sort of like a metal detector, only for people; the louder the growl, the closer they were.

It occurred to Xander that maybe Angel… or whoever this Angel wanna-be was… was possibly looking for and finding Cordelia.

He suppressed a yell and scurried backwards as fast as he could go when Angel suddenly turned and ran in his direction. He dove into a thick bush and waited until he passed, then struggled to disentangle himself from the thorns that held him there with minimal injuries. He was almost out when the vampire ran by again holding a heavy weapon and forced Xander to jump right back into the bush, furthering the scrapes on his face and hands. Eventually Xander fully detached himself and jogged back in the direction of the wandering bloodsucker.

Angel swung at the concrete wall with what looked like a sledgehammer for what probably was the dozenth time, and almost roared in triumph as the wall collapsed. Angel leaped into the opening, giving Xander a plain view of what was hidden inside: A startled Spike untying a tortured Cordy from a rusty pipe in the corner, and Faith being torn apart emphatically by a bloodthirsty vampire wearing only pants and still looking remarkably like Angel.

Xander yelled out Cordelia's name and was about to go rescue her when a crash of wood made even Angel look up. Buffy had kicked down the door.

"There was a door?" Xander asked. He looked at the startled Angel, who was still clinging to Faith's battered and unconscious form. "Why didn't you just use the door?"

"Xander, get Cordelia out," Buffy instructed loudly as she punched Spike hard in the face and leapt toward Angel and Faith.

Xander nodded and stepped quickly through the collapsed wall toward Cordy. Buffy had somehow gotten a hold of handcuffs and had already attached Angel to another rusty pole as she fought with Spike. Xander quietly asked questions to Cordelia to keep her conscious as he untied the ropes, threw them toward Buffy and carried Cordelia out the shattered wall. He sat her down outside and took off his coat and bunched it together to make a pillow for Cordelia's head.

"Thank you, Xander," Cordelia whispered sincerely and slightly uncharacteristically.

Xander smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad we found you." He lifted her chin and lightly kissed her. She fell asleep lying on the grass a second later.

Xander watched her for a moment, truly glad that she was alive, and then remembered that there was a major battle going on. He looked over and saw that Buffy still had a lot of power over Spike and that he was, slowly but surely, getting his ass kicked. Xander stepped in and grabbed Faith from off the floor and took her outside and lay her down beside Cordelia. He decided that Faith definitely got the worse deal. He noticed that she wasn't breathing just as Angel ripped the pipe he was chained to apart.

Spike saw the handcuffed feral vampire lunge toward him and decided that he'd had enough of Sunnydale for a while. "I'll see you around, Slayer," he said, sputtering blood through a broken nose. He grabbed his beloved duster from the floor and hurtled gracefully out the door and into the night.

"Oh, God, Faith," Xander said, checking her pulse and not finding one. "Don't be dead, come on." He tilted her head back and started to give her CPR.

Buffy whirled around to meet Angel and wasn't at all surprised to find that he was still in vamp mode from attacking Faith. She gave him a kick to the face and spun around to give him another when he caught her foot mid-air and flipped her backwards. Her Slayer reflexes allowed her to land on her feet, but she took a moment to regain her footing and Angel took the opportunity to wrap his handcuffed hands around her neck and lean in to smell her neck.

Buffy stiffened and tried to push Angel away, but either he was much stronger than he used to be or she was just weak from Angelic contact. Buffy suspected it was probably option B. She could hear Xander muttering distressfully outside, but paid little attention.

Buffy felt a trail of liquid seep down her neck and onto her shoulder. She suspected that either she was sweating, or Angel had already bitten her without her feeling the pinch of his teeth. She closed her eyes and took in the moment; she'd run away from everything she knew because she'd killed Angel. Now she was prepared to let him do the same to her. More than anything, she wanted her last moments to be in his arms, one way or another.  



	7. Chapter 7

"And you just let her go."

"Uh, hello, Slayer power. Not a lot I could have done, Giles," Willow pointed out as she, Giles and Oz power-walked down the street toward the mansion.

The Watcher looked down and apologized to Willow before saying, "but it's most peculiar that Angel's back at all. You say there was a flash of light and then there was Angel? Well, that makes no sense at all unless he'd been sent back for a reason… but even then, something must have triggered it. Are you sure there was no other detail you're letting pass?"

"There was something on the ground," Oz piped up. "Willow couldn't see it, but I thought I saw something glint before the earthquake started."

Giles raised his eyebrows at the stoic gentleman. "It was small, then, if Willow couldn't see it?"

"Yeah. Barely visible. Something that might fit around Will's finger or someth… what is it?" Oz asked Willow, seeing the expression on her face.

"We talked to Buffy right around here, right?" she asked Oz.

The werewolf nodded. "About, yeah."

"And we're headed to the mansion. She was headed in the opposite direction. Maybe she was coming from the mansion."

"Weren't you?" asked Giles, not sure he was following.

"We took an alternate route in case Angel felt like an ambush once he recovered," Oz explained.

"So what if," Willow continued, "Buffy had just been visiting what would pass as Angel's grave? What if she was just trying to let him go by putting the ring he gave her on the spot he'd last been seen?"

Tears leapt from Buffy's closed eyes as the trail of liquid running from her neck became more noticeable. She'd prepared for this. Everyday that passed, she'd wondered if she'd see Angel again, and she was happy that he was the last thing she'd see.

But she wasn't getting any weaker. Or any less alert.

Buffy waited a few more minutes and then opened her eyes to make sure she knew what was going on. Yes, Angel was here. Yes, he was still fantastically shirtless. Yes, he had his arms around her and yes, he was still dangerously close to her neck.

But Buffy wasn't dying because Angel wasn't trying to kill her.

He was crying.

His lips were also moving. He was whispering something. Buffy paid attention to the slight movement of his lips on her skin to try and decipher what he was trying to say. Eventually, she figured that he was repeatedly saying her name.

"Angel…" she whispered back, putting a hand to his head as though to make sure he was really there. Angel finally put his head down on her left shoulder and hugged her tightly as Buffy stood in utter disbelief at his presence.

"Buffy," came a croaky voice from Buffy's right. She whipped her head around in astonishment but calmed when she saw it was only Xander. She'd totally forgotten he'd been there.

"Faith's dead."

* * *

They decided not to have a service; Faith probably didn't have a lot of friends. That didn't really surprise Xander; her tendency to go evil at the earliest possible opportunity probably drove most of them away. They did all sit around the library, looking very morose and having a few minutes of silence for everything that happened. 

Despite copious warnings from Giles, Buffy nursed Angel back to health in the comfort of his vandalized mansion. She helped him through the psychological trauma of killing Jenny Calendar when he was evil, and especially that of killing a Slayer when he was good. She helped him through his escapades in hell as well as she knew how.

Spike left town before indirectly causing any sort of accidental relationship mishaps such as, oh, say, breaking up Xander and Cordy. Their relationship was stronger than ever after Xander saved Cordy from the depths of unconsciousness… though she chided him often for taking his time. Willow and Oz's relationship never suffered for whatever reason either, and though Willow still secretly loved Xander, Xander was far too interested in having Cordy back to notice. He never appreciated Willow that way.

Buffy convinced Giles to tell her what he knew about Angel's reappearance on earth. "He's back for a reason we can't comprehend, Buffy," he'd said. "Though you brought him back by trying to let him go. Ironic, isn't it? The Powers That Be are the only ones who could truly tell you why he's back. I can't tell you anything like that. I can tell you, however, that if he's back, it must be for a damn good reason. I certainly wouldn't give him a 'Get Out of Hell Free' card if I were…" he'd frowned as Buffy had raised her eyebrows. "Oh my. I must be glad you're back, Buffy… I'm beginning to talk like you."

Buffy continued on with her life; she got re-admitted into school, though late. Willow helped her catch up and Angel helped her with particular sections of history.

What nobody noticed for the longest time was that Faith's death opened the doors for a new Slayer, didn't it?

---

Fin


End file.
